NASA creates world's forest map

Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 16:50 [IST]

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Washington, Jul 21: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) created a global snapshot of the world's forests using satellites and LIDAR, a laser technology that measures the height of forest canopy using pulses of light.

This map of the world's forests took seven years and 250 million pulses to create. The height and distribution of Earth's forests could offer further clues into forests' abilities to absorb the carbon that humans produce.

The map showed that the world's tallest forests are clumped in North America's Pacific Northwest and portions of South East Asia. The shorter ones are found in broad belts across northern Canada and Eurasia.

Humans release about 7 billion tons of carbon annually, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide. Of that, 3 billion tons end up in the atmosphere and 2 billion tons in the ocean.

Now, the map can help scientists to understand where the remaining 2 billion tons of carbon go.